The proposed study is an investigation of how older people cope with the onset of one of three chronic diseases: gout, diabetes mellitus, and chronic lymphocytic leukemia. Strategies of coping with illness onset to be considered include: health behaviors aimed at mastering the demands of illness, and intrapsychic and affiliative behaviors asimed at mastering the distress of being ill. Basic research objectives include: (1) a description of overt and intrapsychic activities employed in the process of coping, (2) a determination of those coping strategies which are effective in maintaining the individual's sense of well-being and sustaining a positive self-concept and appropriate level of physical functioning, and (3) a delineation of the interation of personality and situational factors which determines what coping strategies are used by the older person. Data will be obtained though interviews with older people randomly selected from among those patients diagnosed as having gout, diabetes mellitus, or chronic lymphocytic leukemia as their primary health problem. Respondents will be interviewed between six months and two years after illness onset and follow-up data on the disease course will be obtained throughout the following year. Health attitudes and beliefs of medical personnel will also be addressed using univariate and multivariate statistical analyses.